Color Field

Two years ago the Jekyll Island Commission experimented with planting a wildflower mix along the causeway instead of mowing. This year the flowers were mostly gone, but for a year the display along the road out to Jekyll was absolutely stunning (maybe too stunning…it certainly distracted me the first time I drove it). I had to stop for a few images, which considering the lack of shoulders and the amount of traffic on the causeway, was not really safe or sane. But such flowers, and, on this day, filled with butterflies and bees.

I have already featured a shot from here, with my abstract butterfly on 12/27/2008d, but this shot is more about capturing the mass effect of the display. I tried several shots. You will see the best of them around this on in the gallery. This, taken from a low angle and cropped gives, imho, a good impression of the density of the flowers and the amazing patterns of color. It also captures the density of butterflies pretty well. I cropped it both to increase the panoramic effect, and to eliminate out of focus flowers in the foreground and background where they would have been a distraction (You can see there is still some out of focus toward the back). The light was subdued, late on a cloudy day, and the wind was blowing, so my exposure options were limited. Still, this, I think, works.

Sony DSC H9 at full telephoto (465mm equiv.). F4.5 @ 1/200 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.

In Lightroom, just Clarity, Vibrance, and Sharpening…as well as the crop.

From Jekyll Island GA 2007-08.